November 2020 515 C&RL News

Carrie Russell is director of public policy and advocacy, 
email: crussell@alawash.org, and Kevin Maher is deputy 
director of government relations, email: kmaher@
alawash.org, at ALA’s Washington Office

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eCarrie Russell and Kevin Maher

GSU wins e-reserves case, but not 
clarity on digital copyright policy
After 12 years of litigation, one may have 
forgotten about Cambridge University Press 
et al v Patton et al, also known as the 
Georgia State University (GSU) e-reserves 
case, where three publishers (Cambridge 
University Press, Oxford University Press, 
and Sage) sued GSU over their e-reserves 
policy. Teaching faculty and students pre-
ferred access to materials through digital 
networks. The further away they moved 
from course packs, where permission fees 
had been dutifully collected, the greater 
the drop in publishers’ revenue. Plaintiffs 
in the case deemed GSU’s policy too lax 
and encouraging of an “anything goes if it’s 
for the classroom” approach to copyright. 

The 2008 litigation dragged on, with rul-
ings favoring GSU, but then sent back to the 
district on appeal for the district court judge 
to re-review her fair use assessment for each 
work that was allegedly infringed—not only 
once, but twice. In March 2020, having found 
only 10 of the 99 works infringing, the court 
ruled in favor of GSU. 

Twelve years ago, the GSU e-reserves 
case was thought to be the test case of fair 
use in the digital age. Although GSU won 
the case, ultimately, not much light was shed 
on copyright policy. Since the suit was filed 
in 2008, technology has evolved, publishing 
and library vendor businesses merged, new 
business models emerged, journal prices 
went up, and now digital access is largely 
governed by licensing agreements. Balanced 

copyright policy is not reflected in licensing 
agreements, and terms of some such agree-
ments cannot be negotiated. New models of 
access to academic resources are more likely 
to be resolved in the marketplace and in 
library partnerships with rights holders such 
as university presses that embrace forms of 
open access.  

Federal funding stalls, but support for 
libraries increases  
Federal appropriations, both COVID-19 
emergency funding and regular appropria-
tions, stalled over the summer months, yet 
ALA worked with Congressional champi-
ons to introduce a $2 billion library relief 
package and secure a $2 million increase 
for the Library Services and Technology Act 
(LSTA) in the House appropriations bill. 

To address the emergency needs of librar-
ies, Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) and 
Rep. Andy Levin (D-Michigan) introduced 
companion bills, the Library Stabilization 
Fund Act (LSFA, S.4181/H.R.7486). The 
legislation would establish a $2 billion fund 
for library stabilization, with $1.7 billion to 
be immediately distributed to states. An ad-
ditional $45 million would be available for 
tribal libraries, and $200 million would go to 
competitive grants related to COVID-19. As 
of this writing, there are 62 cosponsors to the 
House bill and 16 to the Senate. 

For the fiscal year (FY) 2021 regular appro-
priations, the House passed its Labor, Health 
and Human Services, Education and Related 
Agencies bill, which rejected the administra-
tion’s recommendation to eliminate LSTA. The 
Senate is not expected to pass any of the 12 
appropriations bills, preferring to negotiate 
on a final package directly with the House 
and Administration. 

mailto:crussell%40alawash.org?subject=
mailto:kmaher%40alawash.org?subject=
mailto:kmaher%40alawash.org?subject=